House begins farm bill debate today

HOUSE BEGINS FARM BILL DEBATE TODAY: The House will take up the farm bill, H.R. 2 (115), today and debate 20 amendments, according to a notice from Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

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It’s just the beginning of what promises to be a busy, multiday affair. The debate is likely to resume Thursday, when a litany of other amendments will be offered to the bill. But first, the House Rules Committee has to duke out which ones will be allowed during another meeting today at 3 p.m. The committee also met Tuesday evening to set the stage for today’s floor action, yours truly reported.

The amendments that could sink the bill: The fate of more contentious proposals — like capping crop insurance premium subsidies, ending production limits in the sugar program and banning sugary drinks from SNAP — could be decided at this afternoon’s House Rules Committee meeting. If attached to the farm bill, many of these could derail support for it, even as it already is expected to rely on mostly GOP votes to pass the House.

On the agenda today: Many of the 20 amendments to be debated on the House floor today are not too controversial. For instance, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) will offer a proposal that would allow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to be spent on multivitamins, while Reps. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) and Michael Burgess (R-Texas) want the Government Accountability Office to determine whether data on which items SNAP recipients are purchasing can be collected under current reporting requirements.

Amendments that aim to expedite U.S. Forest Service wildfire prevention activities and streamline the agency’s application process for constructing broadband infrastructure on federal land also made the cut.

Freedom Caucus ties farm bill support to immigration: Meanwhile, Freedom Caucus members are threatening to withhold support unless there is a roll call on separate legislation pertaining to DREAMers — a conservative immigration measure that even GOP leaders say won’t pass in its current form, report POLITICO’s Liz Crampton and Rachael Bade. The caucus discussed that strategy in a closed-door meeting Tuesday night, just hours after the Republican Study Committee released a long list of concerns with the farm bill.

“Since [leadership] is whipping the farm bill very hard for a vote this week, we believe it’s probably time to go ahead and call the question on the [House Judiciary Chairman Bob] Goodlatte bill as well,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said, referring to the immigration text. “That was a topic of discussion on what would get people to ‘yes’ on the farm bill.”

Meadows didn’t say how many members are threatening to withhold their support, but said that “obviously the only leverage would be if it moved a significant number of yes votes so that’s what we’re checking with all of our members to do.”

House Ag Chairman Mike Conaway told reporters Tuesday night that he’s still working on rounding up enough votes for the bill.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY, MAY 16! Welcome to Morning Ag, where your host wants to know what other definitions of “farming” readers might slap on this funny T-shirt promoted by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Tuesday. Send news and tips to cboudreau@politico.com or @ceboudreau. Follow the whole team: @Morning_Ag.

WALKER ENDORSES THE FARM BILL: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has enacted some ofthe most restrictive food-stamp policies in the country, endorsed the House farm bill on Tuesday in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Conaway. "As a leader in welfare reform, Wisconsin is excited to take advantage of the additional flexibilities the bill authorizes," Walker said.

The governor's letter touted the fact that some 25,000 SNAP recipients have re-entered the workforce after the state's recent efforts that included imposing stricter work requirements on some parents.

It did not, however, mention that another 86,000 people lost their benefits because of the requirements. It's not known what portion of this population found employment, reports Pro Ag’s Helena Bottemiller Evich.

Another perspective: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee — rumored to be a potential 2020 contender for Democrats — also weighed in on Tuesday, sending a letter to the state’s congressional delegation urging a vote against the farm bill. Since 2005, Washington state has run a voluntary SNAP education and training program. The 2014 farm bill expanded that as a part of a larger pilot program for ten states, but the tryout won’t be completed until 2019. USDA has said SNAP E&T programs haven’t been rigorously evaluated since 1994, so it isn’t clear how effective such programs would be in moving people to work.

“The lessons learned from that pilot will be critical to informing the best path forward in expanding this Washington success story nationwide,” Inslee said, adding that the House farm bill would “cut short” that learning process while forcing states to undertake a large expansion without enough resources (over three years, funding would drastically jump from $90 million now to $1 billion annually).

POTUS gives farm bill a thumbs up: President Donald Trump on Tuesday formally supported the bill, praising the legislation as a step toward “meaningful” welfare changes. He also said it would give farmers and ranchers certainty. In a statement of administration policy, the White House focused mostly on the nutrition title, but also flagged some concerns on the ag policy side of things.

Over on the Senate side: Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said that he and ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) may be able to announce the date of farm bill markup in the upper chamber as soon as next week. And he reiterated that it would be a bipartisan affair. More on his comments from yours truly here.

NO TALK OF ZTE AT TRUMP’S SENATE LUNCH: Republican senators who met with Trump on Capitol Hill on Tuesday did not ask questions about the administration’s potential deal with China. The U.S. is said to be negotiating a deal to back off penalties on the Chinese telecom firm ZTE in exchange for Beijing dropping tariffs on billions of dollars of U.S. farm goods like soybeans in corn.

Only Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) were able to squeeze questions in, with several lawmakers telling POLITICO that there wasn’t a chance for more queries because Trump talked nearly the entire time.

Not many fans on Capitol Hill: Earlier on Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was critical of the idea, saying ZTE could make it easier for China to carry out a hack and obtain sensitive information from the U.S. “So we shut everything off,” Grassley told reporters during a weekly press call, referring to the Commerce Department’s recent ban on U.S. companies exporting parts to ZTE that it uses to build smartphones and other equipment.

Roberts, when asked whether the proposed ZTE-agricultural tariffs deal was a good one, simply said, “No.” A spokesperson for the senator did not return a request for further comment.

More than 30 Democrats signal opposition: A group of 32 Senate Democrats and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont sent a letter to Trump requesting that American jobs and national security interests be put ahead of China’s. More from Pro Trade’s Doug Palmer here.

ROW CROPS:

— Perdue drops by Colorado: Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue visited Colorado as part of a four-state tour in support of farmers and food stamps. Perdue toured Colorado food distribution center Food Maven, participated in a roundtable about labor with produce growers and visited Leprino Foods’ Greeley facility. The secretary is set to stop by Fort Collins before heading to Wyoming today. More from the Associated Press here.

— Pressing on ethanol: Sen. Chuck Grassley said he would call for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to resign if he doesn't take action to address the refinery exemptions to the ethanol mandate in the Renewable Fuel Standard. But the senator also said EPA is working on putting in place Trump's commitment last week to expand sales of 15 percent ethanol fuel, Pro Energy’s Eric Wolff has more.

— Bill to help veterans, socially disadvantaged farmers: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) introduced legislation on Tuesday to improve access to USDA's Outreach to Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program. The bill, which would improve assistance to access for minority farmers, is supported by more than 100 groups.

— Court mulls legality of Philly soda tax: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments on the question of whether Philadelphia’s controversial soda tax is kosher under state law. More from the Philadelphia Inquirer here.

— Brady presses for NAFTA 2.0 wrap-up: House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady on Tuesday stressed the need for negotiators to finish NAFTA this week in order for Congress to vote on it this year — one day after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said many of the hardest issues were still not resolved. More from Pro Trade’s Doug Palmer here.

— Who deserves assistance? Coming work requirements for Medicaid, housing aid and food assistance hit barriers when beneficiaries live in areas where work is difficult to find. Michigan's state Senate has passed a proposal that would exempt residents of counties where unemployment exceeds 8.5 percent from work requirements. But using geography to make exemptions draws the risk of missing regional and racial biases — mostly white rural counties would be exempt, while predominantly black urban areas like Flint and Detroit would not. More from The New York Times here.

— Bipartisan confab ahead of farm bill: The farm bill may be heating up in the House, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and from both chambers showed up Tuesday morning on Capitol Hill to help pack 20,000 meals of food at event with the Kraft Heinz Company and Rise Against Hunger, which will be shipping the meals to Mozambique. Roberts and Stabenow even wore matching hats!

About The Author : Catherine Boudreau

Catherine Boudreau is a food and agriculture reporter for POLITICO Pro.

Before joining POLITICO, Catherine spent nearly two years writing about agriculture, food safety and international trade at Bloomberg BNA where she covered Congress, the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration. Catherine’s work also has appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek.

Catherine is a native Vermonter and carries pure maple syrup to her favorite brunch spots in D.C., her current home. When not working, she likes to plan trips to places she’s never been and see live music. She really wants to start playing piano again.